Microbial synthesis and degradation of polymers: Toward a sustainable bioeconomy
Date: 27th of September 2021
Schedule: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Colombia) // 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM (Germany)
The registration is closed.
The production and consumption of commodity polymers has been an indispensable part of the development of our modern society. Owing to their adjustable properties and variety of functions, polymer-based materials will continue playing important roles in achieving a sustainable development in key areas such as healthcare, transport, food preservation, construction, electronics and water management. Considering the serious environmental crisis, generated by increasing consumption of plastics, leading-edge polymers should be designed to provide basic and specialized functions, while using resources in an efficient way that minimizes environmental harm. In this symposium, we will explore innovative strategies to produce bio-based and biodegradable materials that provide specific functions using biotechnology and microbial biodiversity as main drivers. Our experts will provide an overview of native and engineered microorganisms and their enzymes involved in degrading biomass to produce building blocks for new materials, as well as enzymes capable of degrading plastic materials to their monomer constituents that can be used in biotechnological recycling systems. Altogether, we will discuss how microbiology, biotechnology, and polymer science can contribute to achieve a circular bioeconomy, where carbon sources are efficiently used for production of value-added goods.
Dr. Betty Lucy López
Betty Lucy López Osorio, is a Chemical Engineer, Doctor in Colombian Chemistry. She has been a full-time professor since 1972 and leader of the materials science group since 1998 at the University of Antioquia. She has carried out more than 85 publications and 60 research projects. Her work related to transport and controlled release of drugs are widely recognized. She is a corresponding member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences as well as a Senior Researcher in the MinCiencias category. She has published her main research in the field of polymers and characterization of new materials.
Dr. Filomena Freitas
Filomena Freitas is a Senior Researcher at the Biochemical Engineering Group (BIOENG), at UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, FCT-UNL. She has completed a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering by Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT-UNL) in 2004. She has developed research on the development of upstream and downstream processes for the production of value-added microbial products, including polysaccharides and polyhydroxyalkanoates, as well as intellectual property development and technology transfer. Special focus is also given on the biological valorization of agro-industrial wastes/byproducts, aiming at implementing sustainable bioprocesses. She has published over 80 papers in international peer review journals, 13 book chapters and five international patents, which have recently been granted in several countries. She has participated in several projects in collaboration with industry partners.
Dr. Molly Morse
Molly Morse is the CEO and co-founder of Mango Materials, a San Francisco Bay Area-based, next generation, biomanufacturing, start-up company. Mango Materials converts abundant methane gas into low-cost, high-value, biodegradable materials. "We believe waste facilities are the goldmines of the future and we are dedicated to building closed loop, cradle-to-cradle technologies in order to recycle carbon naturally and sustainably."
Molly received her Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering – with an emphasis on anaerobic biodegradation of biocomposites for the building industry – from Stanford University, and her B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. Morse has contributed to multiple patents, publications and presentations. Along with other Mango Materials team members, she is currently working to up-scale the biomanufacturing technology of using methane gas to produce biodegradable materials.
Dr. Maria José Fabra
Maria José Fabra is a permanent researcher at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC). She received her Ph.D. in Food Science (extraordinary award; 2010) at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV, Spain). He has carried out pre- and postdoctoral training at the Bourgogne University (France) and University of Minho (Portugal). Throughout her scientific career, she has developed a multidisciplinary cutting-edge background, which spans from characterization of foods to the development of highly functional and enzymatically active biopolymers by means of nanotechnology using a broad range of analytical techniques. Her research interest focuses on the valorization of by-products and food waste for the development of natural, renewable and biodegradable films and coatings for food packaging applications. She has published more than 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and numerous book chapters and conference proceedings. She is a member of prestigious international expert panels and she is actively collaborating with a number of national and international research groups. She is associate editor of Food Hydrocolloids Journal and member of the editorial board of a number of journals.
About SusPlast:
SusPlast proposes an ambitious cross-sectorial and symbiotic approach that involves materials science and biotechnology in a joint action for the exploitation of new technologies and strategies to overcome the global challenge of `SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS TOWARDS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY’. Specifically, SusPlast aims to develop research and innovation activities, including socio-educational strategies, aimed at plastic production processes and their recycling, through mechanical, chemical and biotechnological strategies to meet the necessary requirements to implement plastics management based on a circular economy.
Dr. Başak Öztürk
Başak Öztürk is the head of the Junior Research Group "Microbial Biotechnology" at Leibniz Institute DSMZ, Braunschweig. She has received her Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen. After her postdoctoral periods in the Wageningen University and Research Center and KU Leuven, she moved to BASF as a research scientist, where she worked on the biodegradation of biodegradable plastics in the marine environment. Her current research projects focus on the multi-omics analysis of plastic-degrading marine and freshwater microbial communities, and the characterization of plastic-degrading enzymes from the marine environment.
Prof. Dr. Tim Bugg
Tim Bugg is Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of Warwick, UK. His research group studies enzymes involved in bacterial lignin degradation, and their application for conversion of lignin into renewable chemicals. The seminar will discuss the discovery of lignin-degrading bacteria, and lignin-oxidising enzymes such as Dyp peroxidases, multi-copper oxidases, and a manganese superoxide dismutase from Sphingobacterium sp. The seminar will also briefly survey the genomes of lignin-degrading bacteria.
Dr. Carol Viviana Amaya Gomez
Carol Amaya received her Ph.D. at the University of Granada in Spain in 2013. During her research career, she has joined institutions such as Estación Experimental (CSIC) in Spain, The University of Warwick in UK, The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the USA, and The University of agricultural sciences in Sweden. Currently she is a researcher at La Libertad Research Center of Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria-AGROSAVIA, located in Villavicencio city where she is part of the team of curators of AGROSAVIA's Germplasm Bank. As a curator, she works in the preservation and physiological and molecular characterization of microorganisms with potential in biological control. The design and implementation of screening strategies to isolate and select microorganisms to be used in biotechnological processes or as active ingredients of bioproducts are within her research interest. She has published several research articles in peer-review journals and has collaborated with numerous national and international research groups.
About AGROSAVIA's Microbial Germplasm Banks:
Since the creation of the National System of Germplasm Banks of the Colombian Nation (snbgnc) in 1994, AGROSAVIA has overseen conserving biodiversity and promoting the use of Germplasm Banks for Food and Agriculture (bgaa). By 2020, the Microbial Germplasm Bank reaches a collection of over 2000 microbial accessions of agricultural interest which are organized into four collections: biological control, biofertilizers, animal nutrition, and animal health. The collections take care of bacteria, filamentous fungi, and yeasts accessions that have been isolated from the soil, insects and the phyllosphere, rhizosphere, and fruits of crops that are distributed in the different departments of Colombia.
Msc. Angela María Alvarado Fernández
Angela María Alvarado Fernández has a degree in Industrial Microbiolology and a Master degree in biological Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá. She is the curator of fungi at the Microorganisms Collection of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (CMPUJ) since 2015. Fernández has ten years of experience in Microbiology, specializing in the fields of Biotechnology, Molecular Biology and Phytopathology. Her interest in research is mostly focused in phytopathogenic fungi. She has participated with lectures and organization of different events related with microbial collections, and most recently is participating in the research group of degradation of polluting plastic polymers, where she is involved as assessor of undergraduate students.
About CMPUJ:
The Microorganisms Collection of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (CMPUJ) formally started in 2001, was registered in the National Register of Collections (RNC, N°148) in 2003 and since 2004 it belongs to the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC, N° 891). The Collection was born with the aim of support teaching and research activities of the Sciences Faculty in the University. However, nowadays it preserves around 572 microorganisms between bacteria, archaea, yeasts and fungi and provides services inside and outside the University, such as biochemical identification of yeast and bacteria, phenotypic identification of fungi, freeze-drying of microorganisms, transfer of microorganisms for teaching and research purposes and public or safe deposits. The CMPUJ is under the direction of Dr. Alba Alicia Trespalacios and has two curators: MSc. Eliana Rodríguez, curator of bacteria and archaea and MSc. Angela Alvarado, curator of fungi and yeast.
The workshop will be divided in 4 main sections:
Section 1: Synthesis and application of bio-based and biodegradable polymers
Currently, there is a growing demand for a clean and pollution-free environment and an evident target to minimizing fossil fuel. Therefore, a great deal of attention has been given on research to replace petroleum-based plastics by biodegradable materials arising from biological and renewable resources. Several biopolymers, polymers derived from natural sources either chemically from a biological material or biosynthesized by living organisms, are also suitable alternatives to address these issues due to their outstanding properties . In this section, the process of synthesis and the applications of Polylactic acid (PLA) and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in medicine and food technology, will be described by Dr. Betty López, Dr. Filomena Freitas and Dr. Maria José Fabra. An special focus will be placed on advances and challenges of large-scale production and commercialization of PHA, according to Dr. Molly Morse, CEO and co-founder of Mango Materials, who will speak about her experience as an entrepreneur and how waste facilities are the goldmines of the future.
Section 2: Biodegradation of lignocellulosic biomass/plastics and microbial bioprospecting strategies
In this section, tree main topics will be developed and discussed. First, Dr. Basak Orztuk will give a talk about the microbial biodegradation of plastic polymers. Her group at DSMZ is interested in how microbes adapt to synthetic compounds (xenobiotics, plastics, surfactants, antimicrobials) in the environment on community, species and protein level. Then, Profeesor Tim Bugg (Warwick University, UK) will give an overview of enzymes (DyP peroxidases, multicopper oxidases, one MnSOD), and microbes involved in lignin transformation, giving a focus on information that his team have learned from looking in several bacterial genomes. In the last part of this section. In the last part of this section Dr. Carol Amaya from AGROSAVIA and Msc. Angela Álvarado from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana will talk about the microbial collections that keep the Colombian microbial biodiversity and can be bioprospected for polymers degradation.
Section 3: Discussion table
Selected Speakers will discussed on challenges in sustainable polymer development.
Section 4: Ask the DAAD and meet the speakers
Uni Andes
Dr. Diego Javier Jiménez (DJ)
Currently, Jiménez is the head of the Microbiomes and Bioenergy Research Group at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Microbial Ecology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands (2012-2016). His topics of research comprises microbial degradation of plant-derived polymers (lignocellulose), synthetic plastics, and the eco-enzymology behind these metabolic processes.
Jiménez' scientific publications
Dr. Felipe Salcedo Galán (FS)
Felipe Salcedo is currently an Associate Professor at the Chemical and Food Engineering Department, Universidad de los Andes, where he has been appointed for the last 9 years, after finnishing his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering (The Pennsylvania State University). His research has focused on: (i) polymers and biopolymers for food packaging and agricultural applications, (ii) biopolymer-based coatings to extend shelf life of fruits and (iii) biopolymer-based composites for biomedical applications. His work has been presented in over 20 international academic congresses and meetings of scholarly societies including The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE), The Materials Research Society (MRS), The Adhesion Society, The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), among others, held in the USA, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Salcedo's scientific publications
Dr. Carol Viviana Amaya Gomez (CA)
Amaya received her Ph.D. at the University of Granada in Spain in 2013. During her research career, she has joined institutions such as Estación Experimental (CSIC), in Spain, The University of Warwick in UK, The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the USA, and The University of agricultural sciences in Sweden. Currently she is a researcher at La Libertad Research Center of Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria-AGROSAVIA, located in Villavicencio city where she is part of the team of curators of AGROSAVIA's Germplasm Bank.
Dr. J. Lorena Castro Mayorga (JLC)
Mayorga is Biological Engineering, Master in Industrial and Agri-food Biotechnology and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia with knowledge and research and teaching experience in microbiology and bioprocess. With experience in the formulation, execution and development of projects focused on the synthesis and characterization of bioproducts of interest in biomedicine and agri-food technology. She is currently working as a Ph.D. researcher in Agrosavia's Bioproducts Department, where she is involved in the development of new materials, applying nanotechnology and biotechnology to the synthesis of polymeric matrices for immobilization and encapsulation of bioactives and the development of new biotechnological routes for synthesis, scaling and formulation of bioproducts.
Hereon
Dr. Natalia A. Tarazona (NT)
Tarazona's research mission is to apply her knowledge of Microbiology and Molecular Biology to address challenges in the development of polymer-based materials for consumer and advanced applications, while making responsible use of natural resources. She was awarded two scholarships for research and doctoral training in Colombia and abroad. She completed her Ph.D. at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) with an international mention, where she acquired proficiency in methodologies for the synthesis and characterization of bacterial polyesters and proteins, including cutting-edge molecular biology for genetic and protein engineering, high throughput analysis of protein-protein interactions, as well as screening of gene expression by RT-qPCR in bacteria. Her work has resulted in the publication of ~15 peer-reviewed papers in the mentioned areas. As a current Post-doc at Helmholtz Institute of Active Polymers, and coordinator of MENZYPOL-NET, she is integrating different academic fields to develop research strategies that cross the boundaries of science.
Dr. Hugo Pena-Cortes (HPC)
Pena-Cortes has a long experience as a scientist in the field of plant molecular biology and metabolomics, working for Chilean and German institutions as well as an intensive work in the management of international interdisciplinary projects, particularly between south-american countries and german organizations.
Dr. Judith Lehmann
Lehmann studied literature, mathematics and cultural studies. As a science manager, she steered cross-faculty projects at various universities and headed the editorial department of a Swiss educational publishing house. She worked as representative of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Argentina and is currently supporting the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in the further development of doctoral training and the expansion of international cooperation.
AGROSAVIA
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon - Institute of Active Polymers